Trivia

As of 2013 she is one of six women who has received a Best Actress Oscar nomination for a performance directed by her spouse, namely for Escape Me Never (1935) directed by Paul Czinner. The other five are Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996) (directed by Joel Coen), Gena Rowlands for A Woman Under the Influence (1974) & Gloria (1980) (both directed by John Cassavetes), Julie Andrews for Victor/Victoria (1982) (directed by Blake Edwards), Joanne Woodward for Rachel, Rachel (1968) (directed by Paul Newman), and Jean Simmons for The Happy Ending (1969) (directed by Richard Brooks). Jules Dassin also directed his future wife Melina Mercouri in a Best Actress Oscar nominated performance (Never on Sunday (1960)), but they weren't married yet at the time of the nomination.

An incident with a fan (and aspiring actress) in 1943-1944, while she was performing in the hit play "The Two Mrs. Carrolls" on Broadway, inspired Mary Orr to write her short story "The Wisdom of Eve". The story was ultimately filmed as All About Eve (1950).

Griffith Jones, who starred with her in Escape Me Never (1935), named his daughter, Gemma Jones, after Bergner's character in that film.

She made several successful British films, including The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934), Escape Me Never (1935) (her Academy Award-nominated performance), As You Like It (1936), and Stolen Life (1939).

She and Bette Davis overlapped in two ways: Davis starred in A Stolen Life (1946), a remake of Stolen Life (1939), in which Bergner starred; and Davis starred in All About Eve (1950), which was based on an incident that actually happened to Bergner.

She was also able to continue her career in Germany, years after her earlier successes. From 1958 on, she appeared sporadically in cinema and TV productions.

In 1923, she made her film debut with a role in the German silent film Der Evangelimann (1924). One year later, she worked with director Paul Czinner for the first time. Bergner and Czinner married in 1933.

Already at the age of 14, she studied at a private acting school and one year later she attended the Viennese conservatory.

At the height of her fame, she made only one film in the United States: Paris Calling (1941). For the next several years, she worked exclusively in theatre and she remained one of its greatest stars.

From 1924 to 1938, she appeared in films directed by Paul Czinner. Bergner-Czinner collaborations include the silent films Husbands or Lovers (1924), The Violinist of Florence (1926), and Fräulein Else (1929) (her most successful from the silent era), as well as the sound films Ariane (1931), Melo (1932), and The Rise of Catherine the Great (1934), a film produced in England, her new home after the emigration.

Although it is inaccurate to say she is actually a character in Peter Handke's "anti-play" "The Ride Across Lake Constance," her name is used as a designation of a character, as are the names of other celebrated actors of the German cinema, Erich von Stroheim, Heinrich George, Emil Jannings, Henny Porten and the twins Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler.

She made her theater debut in Innsbruck in 1915 and in 1921 she went to Berlin where she achieved her breakthrough with the movie "Wie es Euch gefällt". Because of this success Elisabeth Bergner became the celebrated theater star of Berlin.

Bergner was also reputedly the inspiration for the character of Dora Martin in the novel Mephisto by Klaus Mann.

She repeated her stage role of Rosalind, opposite Laurence Olivier's Orlando, in As You Like It (1936), the first sound film version of Shakespeare's play, and the first sound film of any Shakespeare play filmed in England.

In 1980, Austria awarded her the Cross of Merit for Science and Art, and, in 1982, she won the Eleonora Duse Prize Asolo.